@cryptaxpt
Account based inPortugal
About this account
- Account based in
- Portugal
- Connected via
- Portugal App Store
Account-level information from X, not a live location or the device used for a specific post.
Crypto bookkeeping & Tax Consulting in 🇵🇹| Helping traders to save on IRS | ❌Not offering legal or financial advice *featured on @coinbureau, @KoinlyOfficial
Lisbon
Joined April 2020
- Tweets18.1K
- Following979
- Followers7.6K
- Likes20.5K
Pinned Tweet
🌟 Portugal just won “Economy of the Year 2025” according to The Economist! 🇵🇹
For the first time ever, Portugal tops the magazine’s annual ranking of the 36 largest advanced economies, overtaking last year’s winner (Spain) and leaving powerhouses like the US, Germany or Japan far behind.
What made the difference?
✅ Stronger-than-expected GDP growth (projected 1.9–2.3 %, well above the eurozone average)
✅ One of the lowest inflation rates in Europe
✅ A soaring stock market (PSI-20 among the best performers globally in 2025)
✅ Record tourism numbers and foreign investment
✅ Attractive tax regimes pulling in high-net-worth individuals and digital nomads
In the words of The Economist: “Portugal combined solid growth with tame prices and a buoyant stock market better than any other rich country.”
From the country that was bailed out little more than a decade ago to the best-performing advanced economy of 2025!
🎉
I consider taxing yield with a lower return than the real inflation rate, purchase power theft.
Taxing nominal yield when returns fall below inflation is effectively a tax on purchase power loss...
For example: Revolut offers a 2% annual yield on savings. With Portugal’s inflation at 3.3%, saving money results in a real loss of 1.3% in purchasing power.
Despite this loss, the state still taxes that 2% yield at 28%. Why are savers taxed on nominal gains when their real purchasing power shrank?
Even with higher-risk assets like stablecoins offering 4% yield, a 28% tax takes over 1% of the total return, leaving you with just a ~0.7% real gain after inflation.
Tax laws need to adapt: interest and yield should only be taxed on real returns generated above inflation.
📉Is Portugal’s official inflation rate telling the whole story?
According to Statistics Portugal (INE), year-over-year inflation hit 3.3% in August 2026. Yet everyday costs tell a very different story:
Rent: Up 7% nationwide, and over 12% in hubs like Lisbon and Porto.
Energy & Fuel: Spiked by 12%+.
Dining & Services: Rose 5% to 8%.
Groceries & Essentials: Increased 3.4% to 5.5%.
When every core expense outpaces the headline figure, it raises the question: how does the official math actually add up to 3.3%?
INE source: ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=IN…
💡How long can Portugal maintain its edge as one of Europe's most crypto-friendly jurisdictions? 🇵🇹🏆
With ongoing EU pressures (think MiCA alignment, DAC8 reporting, and the end of the classic NHR program), Portugal's crypto tax regime has already evolved significantly since 2023.
Today (in 2026):
🔹Short-term gains (crypto held <365 days): 28% flat tax
🔹Long-term gains (held >365 days): 0% — still fully exempt for most private holders
🔹Crypto-to-crypto trades and many NFT-related activities often remain untaxed
Long-term HODLers continue to enjoy strong advantages, but the writing is on the wall: closer harmonization across the EU could bring changes...
To gauge Portugal's future direction, let's benchmark it against the current top 3 crypto-tax-friendly EU countries (excluding Portugal itself):
🥇Germany
🔹Long-term capital gains (>1 year hold): 0% tax, completely exempt for private individuals (treated as private assets).
🔹Short-term gains (<1 year): Taxed as personal income at progressive rates up to ~45% (+ solidarity surcharge), but with an annual exemption of €1,000 on total private-sale gains.
🔹Staking, mining, airdrops: Often income-taxed if frequent/professional.
✅Best for: Committed long-term holders who avoid frequent trading.
🥈Malta
🔹Occasional/passive holdings or non-professional activity: Frequently 0% or very low effective tax (crypto often seen as a store of value/unit of account, not triggering business classification).
🔹Frequent/professional trading: Treated as business income → progressive rates 15–35% (headline up to 35%, potentially lower via structuring or non-dom status).
🔹No blanket capital gains tax; depends on "trading" vs. passive investment. Non-doms benefit from remittance basis on foreign gains.
✅Best for: Occasional investors or those with smart structuring.
🥉Cyprus (new regime effective January 2026)
🔹Gains from crypto disposals (sales, exchanges, etc.): Flat 8% tax under Article 20E of the Income Tax Law, applies broadly, no long-term exemption required.
🔹Mining/other income types: May fall outside this flat rate.
✅Best for: Active traders seeking a predictable low flat rate vs. higher progressive systems.
Portugal's 0% long-term treatment still looks very competitive, especially for patient investors, but EU alignment and reporting requirements are tightening the landscape everywhere.
As always, I will keep you updating about this ever changing landscape.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
🚨The most common tax mistake I see on Portuguese IRS returns?🇵🇹
Choosing not to englobar passive income and capital gains... when englobing them could drastically reduce your overall tax burden.
Every time someone asks me to review a previous tax return, whether prepared by themselves or by a tax professional, this is by far the most frequent error I encounter.
So, what does “englobar” or “não englobar” mean? In the Portuguese IRS system, for certain types of income (such as capital gains, dividends, interest, and other passive income), you have two options:
🔹Not englobar: Pay a flat 28% tax rate on that income.
🔹Englobar: Add that income to your other earnings and have it taxed according to the progressive tax brackets.
Many people automatically choose the flat 28% rate, assuming it’s always better. However, if you have little or no active income (as an employee or self-employed) and you live mainly from passive income and investments, englobing can often result in a significantly lower effective tax rate, sometimes much lower than 28%, depending on the amounts involved.
The key is to always simulate both scenarios.
✅Pro tip:
You can test both options directly on the Finanças portal. Submit the declaration both ways and compare the final tax due. The system will clearly show which option gives you the lowest tax burden.
Small decisions like this can literally save thousands of euros.
🚨The most common tax mistake I see on Portuguese IRS returns?🇵🇹
Choosing not to englobar passive income and capital gains... when englobing them could drastically reduce your overall tax burden.
Every time someone asks me to review a previous tax return, whether prepared by themselves or by a tax professional, this is by far the most frequent error I encounter.
So, what does “englobar” or “não englobar” mean? In the Portuguese IRS system, for certain types of income (such as capital gains, dividends, interest, and other passive income), you have two options:
🔹Not englobar: Pay a flat 28% tax rate on that income.
🔹Englobar: Add that income to your other earnings and have it taxed according to the progressive tax brackets.
Many people automatically choose the flat 28% rate, assuming it’s always better. However, if you have little or no active income (as an employee or self-employed) and you live mainly from passive income and investments, englobing can often result in a significantly lower effective tax rate, sometimes much lower than 28%, depending on the amounts involved.
The key is to always simulate both scenarios.
✅Pro tip:
You can test both options directly on the Finanças portal. Submit the declaration both ways and compare the final tax due. The system will clearly show which option gives you the lowest tax burden.
Small decisions like this can literally save thousands of euros.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
Digital nomads frequently ask me which Portuguese bank is the most crypto-friendly 🏦
Honestly? I try to avoid local banks altogether. After changing accounts four times and dealing with endless headaches, like paying for an urgent replacement card sent to the wrong address, or getting charged just to access my own statements, I've personally had enough.
That said, having an account with access to the Multibanco system is essential for smooth tax payments and direct debits. Thankfully, Revolut now offers Portuguese IBANs locally, giving you full Multibanco access without the traditional banking hassle.
Which bank is crypto-friendly in Portugal?🏦🇵🇹
I’ve had some pretty frustrating experiences with local Portuguese banks, mostly communication problems, administrative errors, and attempts to charge me for their own mistakes. None of those issues were crypto-related, but they left a bad taste.
That’s why I’m glad @Revolut entered the Portuguese market. I’ve used them for years with consistently good results, and they now hold a MiCA license while offering solid crypto support. This means you no longer need to off-ramp funds to a separate bank account, as Revolut acts as both the exchange and the bank.
I upgraded to Premium mainly to lower crypto transaction fees and gain better customer support. As a bonus, it currently includes free NordVPN, one year of Perplexity Pro, six months of ChatGPT Pro, Uber Gold, and several other perks.
As pointed out in the post below, building a relationship with your bank matters. It’s a two-way street: you give them some business, and they provide the service. Banks aren’t obligated to keep you as a customer any more than you’re obligated to stay with them. They can end the relationship just as easily as you can.
✅If you haven’t signed up for Revolut yet, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral link below.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
O regresso da F1 a Portimão diz muito sobre Portugal.
Ter um lugar no calendário da F1 é uma conquista enorme. São 24 corridas, países a disputar cada data e circuitos a ficarem de fora. Em 2027, Zandvoort e Barcelona saem. Portugal regressa, com acordo para 2027 e 2028.
Não acontece por acaso. O Autódromo Internacional do Algarve é um circuito a sério e Portugal já mostrou que sabe receber eventos desta dimensão.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
🚨BREAKING: The U.S. House’s tax committee, Ways and Means, has ADVANCED a bipartisan crypto TAX BILL in a 38–5 vote.
The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act would clarify crypto tax treatment, ease burdens on small transactions and extend existing financial tax rules to digital assets.
The bill sets a $10 small-transactions threshold and provides specific tax treatment for qualifying dollar stablecoins and small network and transaction fees.
It also addresses mining, staking and wash sale rules. The tax bill still needs approval from the full House.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
NOVITÀ DELL’ULTIMA ORA SU REVOLUT
Iniziamo dall’elemento mancante fino a ieri: la casella di posta certificata violata appartiene alla Prefettura di Reggio Calabria (nello specifico, l'ufficio Enti Locali, che fa capo al Ministero dell'Interno).
Ma c’è un aspetto grottesco, sollevato oggi da testate specializzate, di natura prettamente giuridico-procedurale.
Infatti formalmente la Prefettura coordina l'ordine pubblico, ma non ha la competenza penale per emettere ordini di acquisizione di dati bancari all'estero (i quali spettano alle Procure della Repubblica tramite canali giudiziari dedicati).
Il team legale di Revolut ha quindi accettato un finto Ordine Europeo di Indagine (OEI) formalmente inviato da un ufficio amministrativo che non avrebbe mai dovuto emetterlo.
E qui a mio avviso la responsabilità di Revolut diventa palese, al netto dei legittimi tentativi della banca fintech di ridimensionare le proprie omissioni,
È cosa ben nota infatti che gli accessi PEC governativi siano in vendita sul dark web da anni.
Per questo motivo, molti analisti di cyber-risk sostengono che la responsabilità non sia affatto da dividere al 50%, ma che Revolut abbia mostrato una grave "negligenza procedurale". E su questo punto concordo totalmente.
Infatti qui siamo davanti al classico conflitto tra Conferma del server vs Conferma del mittente.
Come evidenziato dagli esperti di AML intelligence, i sistemi di conformità delle fintech spesso verificano solo che la mail arrivi da un dominio certificato (il server), senza accertarsi se la persona fisica che scrive sia un investigatore realmente autorizzato a richiedere quei dati.
E qui passiamo all’errore fatale commesso da Revolut: la mancata verifica "Out-of-Band"
Trattandosi di dati sensibilissimi di circa 700 clienti (selezionati chirurgicamente dai criminali tra i profili con i più ingenti portafogli di criptovalute) lo standard di sicurezza avrebbe imposto un controllo incrociato "fuori banda" (es. una telefonata di verifica ai canali istituzionali centrali del Ministero o a Europol), anziché limitarsi a rispondere alla stessa catena di email controllata dagli hacker.
E a tal proposito, un dettaglio emerso oggi rende tutta la vicenda ancora più grottesca: è stata la stessa Revolut ad accorgersi dell'inganno dopo ben 5 mesi (un'eternità in termini di cybersecurity).
Gli analisti della banca (alla buon’ora) si sono insospettiti per via di alcune anomalie e hanno contattato la Prefettura per altre vie, scoprendo che l'ufficio non sapeva nulla di quelle richieste.
Naturalmente adesso il Ministero dell'Interno italiano si trova al centro di un polverone politico, poiché l'account PEC è rimasto in mano ai criminali da marzo a luglio senza che i sistemi di monitoraggio statali se ne accorgessero.
In tale ambito, siamo ancora in attesa di una nota del ministero che giustifichi la falla sulla PEC (insistere sulla linea del silenzio sarebbe oltremodo imbarazzante).
Per concludere, dibattito ora si sta spostando sui rimborsi e sulle sanzioni dei Garanti della Privacy (italiano ed europeo), che ragionevolmente commineranno delle multe a Revolut, per aver consegnato i dati dei clienti senza adeguate verifiche, come previsto dal GDPR.
Una cosa è certa: questa storia ha scoperchiato il vaso di Pandora sulle enormi criticità delle attuali procedure di anti riciclaggio, alla luce dell’incapacità di garantire la sicurezza dei dati personali di milioni di persone.
La concentrazione crescente di dati identificativi e finanziari nei sistemi AML e KYC, si sta rivelando fallace. Infatti, più informazioni vengono aggregate e interconnesse, più questi archivi diventano bersagli ad altissimo valore per cybercriminali e furti di identità.
#Revolut #Hack
Digital nomads frequently ask me which Portuguese bank is the most crypto-friendly 🏦
Honestly? I try to avoid local banks altogether. After changing accounts four times and dealing with endless headaches, like paying for an urgent replacement card sent to the wrong address, or getting charged just to access my own statements, I've personally had enough.
That said, having an account with access to the Multibanco system is essential for smooth tax payments and direct debits. Thankfully, Revolut now offers Portuguese IBANs locally, giving you full Multibanco access without the traditional banking hassle.
Which bank is crypto-friendly in Portugal?🏦🇵🇹
I’ve had some pretty frustrating experiences with local Portuguese banks, mostly communication problems, administrative errors, and attempts to charge me for their own mistakes. None of those issues were crypto-related, but they left a bad taste.
That’s why I’m glad @Revolut entered the Portuguese market. I’ve used them for years with consistently good results, and they now hold a MiCA license while offering solid crypto support. This means you no longer need to off-ramp funds to a separate bank account, as Revolut acts as both the exchange and the bank.
I upgraded to Premium mainly to lower crypto transaction fees and gain better customer support. As a bonus, it currently includes free NordVPN, one year of Perplexity Pro, six months of ChatGPT Pro, Uber Gold, and several other perks.
As pointed out in the post below, building a relationship with your bank matters. It’s a two-way street: you give them some business, and they provide the service. Banks aren’t obligated to keep you as a customer any more than you’re obligated to stay with them. They can end the relationship just as easily as you can.
✅If you haven’t signed up for Revolut yet, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral link below.
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
🔥Sometimes the Portuguese crypto tax rules still surprise even me😱
Last week, I worked with a client who generated €100,000 in crypto activity income, fully supported by a solid legal opinion from a law firm confirming the tax classification.
Under Portugal’s simplified tax regime (Category B), only 15% of this income is considered taxable profit. That means the Portuguese tax authorities (AT) treat the €100,000 as €15,000 profit and €85,000 in presumed costs.
But here’s where it gets even better:
Because he’s under 35 and hasn’t lived/worked in Portugal for 10 years, he qualifies for the new IRS Jovem regime, which exempts the first €28,000 of his taxable income.
Result?
Zero income tax on €100,000 of crypto income. Portugal continues to offer some of the most attractive tax treatments for crypto and digital assets in Europe, when properly structured and documented.
⚠️Disclaimer: Legal opinions and proper structuring are essential in this space. Always consult qualified tax advisors and lawyers before implementing any strategy.
🚨Important Update for Young Professionals in Portugal: IRS Jovem Regime(2025 and Beyond) 🇵🇹
If you're under 35 and earning income from employment (Category A) or self-employment (Category B), this could help you significantly reduce your IRS tax bill.
The Portuguese tax authorities have updated the IRS Jovem regime starting in 2025.
Here's what you need to know from the official declaration form (Modelo 3):
Key Requirements (you must meet all of them):
✅Be 35 years old or younger as of 31 December 2025
Not be listed as a dependent (in box Q6 of the tax return)
✅Have no more than 10 years of earning Category A and/or B income as a non-dependent taxpayer
✅Not benefit (or have benefited) from the Non-Habitual Resident (RNH) regime
✅Not benefit from the tax incentive for scientific research and innovation (IFISI – Article 58.º-A EBF)
✅Not benefit from the tax regime for former residents
Have a regularized tax situation
If you qualify and if it benefits you, make sure you or your tax professional selects it in the tax return.
If you are one of my clients, you can make sure that I selected the right option for you on your behalf😉
🔥Sometimes the Portuguese crypto tax rules still surprise even me😱
Last week, I worked with a client who generated €100,000 in crypto activity income, fully supported by a solid legal opinion from a law firm confirming the tax classification.
Under Portugal’s simplified tax regime (Category B), only 15% of this income is considered taxable profit. That means the Portuguese tax authorities (AT) treat the €100,000 as €15,000 profit and €85,000 in presumed costs.
But here’s where it gets even better:
Because he’s under 35 and hasn’t lived/worked in Portugal for 10 years, he qualifies for the new IRS Jovem regime, which exempts the first €28,000 of his taxable income.
Result?
Zero income tax on €100,000 of crypto income. Portugal continues to offer some of the most attractive tax treatments for crypto and digital assets in Europe, when properly structured and documented.
⚠️Disclaimer: Legal opinions and proper structuring are essential in this space. Always consult qualified tax advisors and lawyers before implementing any strategy.
🚨Important Update for Young Professionals in Portugal: IRS Jovem Regime(2025 and Beyond) 🇵🇹
If you're under 35 and earning income from employment (Category A) or self-employment (Category B), this could help you significantly reduce your IRS tax bill.
The Portuguese tax authorities have updated the IRS Jovem regime starting in 2025.
Here's what you need to know from the official declaration form (Modelo 3):
Key Requirements (you must meet all of them):
✅Be 35 years old or younger as of 31 December 2025
Not be listed as a dependent (in box Q6 of the tax return)
✅Have no more than 10 years of earning Category A and/or B income as a non-dependent taxpayer
✅Not benefit (or have benefited) from the Non-Habitual Resident (RNH) regime
✅Not benefit from the tax incentive for scientific research and innovation (IFISI – Article 58.º-A EBF)
✅Not benefit from the tax regime for former residents
Have a regularized tax situation
If you qualify and if it benefits you, make sure you or your tax professional selects it in the tax return.
If you are one of my clients, you can make sure that I selected the right option for you on your behalf😉
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
My favourite place to go for a quiet walk, recharge, while breathing fresh ocean air 🏖️ 🇵🇹
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
I had never driven in 40°C heat before, but thanks to the Portuguese Alentejo, now I have ☀️
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
⚡️Did you know Portugal has a dedicated Large Taxpayers Unit?🇵🇹
In Portuguese, it's called Unidade dos Grandes Contribuintes (UGC), a specialized division that works with around 2,000 high-impact taxpayers who account for roughly 43–45% of all tax revenue in the country.
These include:
1⃣Companies with high revenues or complex operations (e.g. multinationals, firms with transfer pricing)
2⃣Individuals earning over €750,000/year or holding assets over €5 million
3⃣Entities under special tax regimes or with major financial activity
Despite making up less than 2% of the tax authority’s staff, the UGC plays a huge role in:
✅ Ensuring tax compliance
✅ Reducing litigation
✅ Detecting and preventing sophisticated tax evasion
It’s a powerhouse of fiscal oversight in Portugal’s tax system.
Eligible individuals and entities may choose to voluntarily submit themselves to oversight by this unit.
If you fit the criteria and you have nightmares about income taxes. Than this might be a solution for you!
⚡️Did you know Portugal has a dedicated Large Taxpayers Unit?🇵🇹
In Portuguese, it's called Unidade dos Grandes Contribuintes (UGC), a specialized division that works with around 2,000 high-impact taxpayers who account for roughly 43–45% of all tax revenue in the country.
These include:
1⃣Companies with high revenues or complex operations (e.g. multinationals, firms with transfer pricing)
2⃣Individuals earning over €750,000/year or holding assets over €5 million
3⃣Entities under special tax regimes or with major financial activity
Despite making up less than 2% of the tax authority’s staff, the UGC plays a huge role in:
✅ Ensuring tax compliance
✅ Reducing litigation
✅ Detecting and preventing sophisticated tax evasion
It’s a powerhouse of fiscal oversight in Portugal’s tax system.
Eligible individuals and entities may choose to voluntarily submit themselves to oversight by this unit.
If you fit the criteria and you have nightmares about income taxes. Than this might be a solution for you!
Tax guy 🇵🇹 retweeted
Revolut hands over full user data, including passport and facial photos, to a government that requested them with a fake excuse.
A long time ago, I worked at a Bitcoin exchange handling these requests, so I have some insight into how they work.
What we know about this incident:
- "Unauthorised email account " - The request came from the government itself, so the government itself is corrupt, bribed or just wants to do more mass surveillance even if the laws do not allow it; were possible, it wouldn't
- No court order, but an "emergency request" - so likely excuses used are terrorism (Spain used this to get emails from ProtonMail from its Catalonia separatists), child sexual abuse (Hungary's Fidesz used this to confiscate data and information of the opposing Tisza party in the previous elections)
- Because Revolut has a banking license in the EU, whose users are the victims, the request likely comes from an EU country
- Revolut did not have a process to call back the police department, based on widely published information, to do a two-way handshake to confirm the request. But even if this was possible, it would not matter if the government itself is corrupt.
GDPR does not protect your data; it only allows punishment after the leak.
What needs to happen
- The government must be publicly named. The responsible party in this incident is the government that requested the data, not Revolut, because Revolut had to follow God knows what "co-operation with law enforcement" FATF, BIS, and other "anti-money laundering" agencies tell Revolut to follow, or Revolut would be fined for aiding terrorism.
- Banking regulators responsible for this process must be held liable (FATF, which writes the guidelines for these processes, cannot be held liable in practice - it's an American-led organisation and only publishes anonymous guidance without having any person's name in any document, and banks must stop following this guidance).
- People need to be made more aware of the problem that more data collection and more data sharing are unlikely to lead to more crime being prevented. It's the opposite
- If I need to bet on the country in the question, it is likely Spain or France
In other news, Europol just requested backdooring end-to-end encryption and full and unlimited access to all of our private messages: nitter.cf/moo9000/status/2097972… - think what this development will do when these spooks get access to all the data in our lives without proper controls in place.
The screenshot is from @zachxbt.
EUROPOL IS LOBBYING THE EU COMMISSION TO BAN END-TO-END ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATIONS
"Horizon scanning on emerging privacy enhancement technologies" lobby report just dropped.
Europol, with EU taxpayers' money, is again lobbying to end privacy, seeking unlimited access to all messages worldwide, and pushing to ban end-to-end encrypted messaging apps and VPNs. This is part of the EU Commission's earlier ProtectEU agenda, which includes concerning snooping laws and mass-surveillance elements.
Europol calls privacy-enhancing technologies, or PETS, the tools of criminals:
“PETs are used by criminal actors for secure communication, anonymisation, and protection of data. Criminal networks utilise various PETs, including end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, encrypted phones, and virtual private networks (VPNs), to communicate securely and anonymously. “
"For this reason, lawful access to electronic evidence has become one of the most critical issues for European law enforcement"
These idiots still do not understand that the backdoor they want for themselves will be open for everyone in the world, and once opened, cannot be closed again. We had such a backdoor in the 90s, and after a lot of citizenship legal warfare, we managed to close it. The closed door was further tightened after Edward Snowden revealed how the USA spies on everyone on this planet, including the EU members of parliament themselves.
Now, Europol wants the backdoors back because of “protecting the children.” If consumer-grade encryption is made illegal, criminals can, and will, still use it, as anyone can build an encrypted messaging app with an AI in two days. Only normal citizens will have their data collected, sold and consumed by advertisers, opposition politicians, Russian oligarchs, Donald Trump, and God knows who. And of course Europol itself.
Remember, a state where the police make the rules is called a police state.
Europe has a rich and complicated history of snooping on its citizens, as for example with the Stasi or Brigada Político-Social ("la Secreta"). Even our current politicians in this decade have been using Israeli NSO spyware to spy on opposition politicians in Poland, Greece, Hungary and Spain, and nobody in the police has been sentenced for this. Mind you, these were judge-approved requests. Against this backdrop, getting "lawful" access to all messages in the world is a tall ask from Europol.
Furthermore, a deliberate path laid out for privacy violations and EU-wide snooping access erodes trust in the EU as an institution. The EU was sold to us as a trade union, but the Commission has taken an interest in turning it into the police state it wants. This drives voters to the far-left and far-right parties.
And what do the European Commission and Europol want? Here are the most important highlights from the paper.
BANNING END-TO-END ENCRYPTION IS A PRIORITY FOR EUROPEAN COMMISSION
"This report presents the results of a joint horizon scanning exercise carried out by the EU Policy Lab at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and Europol, the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. It contributes to broader JRC efforts to support the European Commission’s political priority, the ‘New Era for European Defence and Security’, by anticipating future technological developments. “
END-TO-END ENCRYPTION MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL
“Existing regulatory frameworks might need to be reviewed to clarify and simplify compliance processes and reduce the current legal uncertainty related to data usage, particularly in light of the challenges and opportunities that current and emerging PETs pose to law enforcement.”
WE WANT TO HAVE A BACKDOOR IN EVERY SYSTEM
“A proactive and informed approach to regulating advanced PETs and key enabling technologies is needed to leverage the benefits of these technologies effectively and to prevent potential new risks stemming from them. This includes developing clear guidelines to include law enforcement access to data.”
WE WANT TO HAVE A BACKDOOR IN EVERY SYSTEM EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD WITH OUR POLICE BUDDIES, NO MATTER IF THOSE COUNTRIES ARE A BIT QUESTIONABLE
“Collaboration and international partnerships are essential to develop common standards for PETs and foster law enforcement cooperation in fighting cybercrime, including lawful access to data for law enforcement agencies; implementation of relevant international agreements should also be promoted”
The snoopers who signed this paper and want to read your messages include:
— Sigita TRAINAUSKIENE (JRC)
— João FARINHA (JRC)
— Mark WITTFOTH (Europol)
— Diederik DON (Europol)
— Alexandra de MALEVILLE (JRC)
And the others:
— Adrianus Warmenhoven, Nord VPN
— Bart Preneel, KU Leuven
— Cornelia Kutterer, Considerati
— Cyril Piotrowicz, FR Gendarmerie
— Denise Mayerdorfer, Federal Ministry of Interior – Austria
— Dorine Walter, National Gendarmerie – France
— Fredrik Heintz, Linköping University
— Freek Bomhof, TNO
— Igor Nai Fovino, JRC
— Ismael Alvarez, Europol
— Johanna Laurin Gulled, Swedish Police Authority
— Juraj Kubica, DG CNECT
— Olga Batura, TNO
— Pieter Nooren, TNO
— Jürgen Freudenberger, Cyberagentur
— Kasper Rasmussen, Oxford University
— Kirsi Jauhiainen, Police of Finland
— Marjolein Lanzing, University of Amsterdam
— Miguel Fayos Mestre, Guardia Civil – Spain
— Mihai Tiganus, Romanian Police
— Ralf Zimmermann, Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector – Germany
— Tariq Elahi, University of Edinburgh
— Vasileios Rovilos, Future of Privacy Forum
— William Borg, Danish Online Police Patrol
— William Karlberg, Malta Police Force
— Gwendolyn BAILEY (JRC)
— Antonia MOCHAN (JRC)
I have attached some screenshots of these authors celebrating the steps taken to erode privacy. If you want to stop this, the best way is to raise awareness: I kindly ask you to refer this to the local press and ask them to call these people for an interview to ask them what is so important that they should read our private messages.
europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/…
